National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, says labour’s struggle is to salvage the nation for the better, and not for ‘bread and butter’.
Ajaero spoke yesterday through his deputy who represented him at the commencement of the 23rd National Delegates Conference of the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) held at the University of Benin.
“Your fight for the 2009 agreement is not just a fight for lecturers. It’s a fight for the future of Nigeria’s intellectual sovereignty. It’s a civic responsibility which you approach gallantly.
“We applaud your doggedness. Your refusal to let the flames of the struggle to be extinguished by the cold wind of state indifference. The recent victory of N40 million is a testimony to your resilience. But we must ask, has this money left the coffers of power or is it another audio allocation? A mirage in the dessert of broken promises?
“Let us not celebrate until every kobo touches the hands of the workers who earned it, the Nigerian state is held hostage by a cabal, they privatise our commonwealth,” he said
A former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, a past president of ASUU, said, “Education is no doubt one of the key institutions in/of any nation. Struggles to improve education, to protect and, expand educational opportunities, provide quality education and protect as well as defend the interest of workers in academic institutions are in many fundamental respects, struggles for nation building.
“In these struggles, ASUU has made many sacrifices; its members have suffered harassment, intimidation, deprivation of rights and freedoms; it has been abused, pilloried, accused of subversion, branded too radical.” The conference ends on Sunday with the installation of a new ASUU president.
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